Animal rights groups question NIH's commitment to reduce primate research
Smadar Spector
Animal rights groups question NIH's commitment to reduce primate research
https://www.aol.com/articles/animal-rights-groups-nihs-commitment-090006932.html
This story is part of a collaboration with The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina.
A federal health agency that has promised to scale back its animal research has drawn the attention of animal rights advocates who want to know why it quietly approved millions in new funding for dozens of primate experiments since President Trump took office.
"The NIH's rhetoric about reducing animal testing doesn't match reality," said Justin Goodman, senior vice president of White Coat Waste, an organization that has described the Trump Administration's commitment to drastically reduce animal testing as a "watershed moment" in its fight to end the practice.
His group is highlighting the new spending to add pressure on National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya, one of several federal officials who promised that the agency will stop funding all but the most essential animal research and implement alternative testing methods. That decision — highly controversial in the world of medical research — comes at a moment when animal rights advocates have unprecedented leverage within the U.S. government through their close alliances with the president and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
